''Monanthes anagensis'' is the largest

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

in the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

Monanthes ''Monanthes'' is a genus of small, succulent, subtropical plants of the family Crassulaceae. The about ten species are mostly endemic to the Canary Islands and Savage Islands, with some found on Madeira. Its center of diversity is Tenerife, with ...

'', forming little

bushes A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

about high. Leaves are laxly spaced, linear-elliptic, quite smooth, and long. When stunted it somewhat resembles '' Monanthes laxiflora'' but differs from any form of that variable species in its distinctly

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

by habit, alternate (not opposite) longer and narrower leaves which are green, red, or purplish, never grey, and ovoid buds, the buds of ''M. laxiflora'' being broader than long.

Habitat

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...

, local

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

for the island of

Tenerife Tenerife (; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands. It is home to 43% of the total population of the archipelago. With a land area of and a population of 978,100 inhabitants as of Janu ...

and abundant along the watershed of the Anaga Mountains, at an altitude of .

Description

A small erect, glabrous, much-branched

sub-shrub A subshrub (Latin ''suffrutex'') or dwarf shrub is a short shrub, and is a woody plant. Prostrate shrub is a related term. "Subshrub" is often used interchangeably with "bush".Jackson, Benjamin, Daydon; A Glossary of Botanic Terms with their De ...

, up to high and wide. Roots fibrous. Branches grey, tortuous, bare save near the apices (more leafy in cultivation) Leaves alternate, not rosulate, sessile, glabrous, linear-elliptic (or in cultivation linear), rather blunt, subtereta, flattish and channelled on face, about 1.5 cm (in cultivation up to 2.5 cm) long, 4 mm broad, 3 mm thick, green, in exposure red or purple. Inflorescence pseudo-terminal, 2 to 6 flowered, racemose, pedicels glabrous, filiform, up to 2.5 cm long. Buds broadly ovoid. Flowers 7-parted, 1 cm across, greenish-yellow.

Calyx Calyx or calyce (plural "calyces"), from the Latin ''calix'' which itself comes from the Ancient Greek ''κάλυξ'' (''kálux'') meaning "husk" or "pod", may refer to: Biology * Calyx (anatomy), collective name for several cup-like structures ...

glabrous, cut halfway down into deltoid subacute segments.

Petal Petals are modified Leaf, leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often advertising coloration, brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''c ...

s deltoid-lanceolate, acute, 4 mm long, greenish-yellow with reddish nerve. Stamens nearly equaling the petals, filaments reddish,

anther The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filam ...

s yellow. Scales 1 mm long, 1,5mm broad, narrow below, expanded above into two subcircular scrabid pale green lobes. Carpels 2,5 mm long, the short styles at first erect, later divergent. Flowering May–June.

References

anagensis Endemic flora of the Canary Islands Plants described in 1925 {{Crassulaceae-stub